HARARE – Facing a struggling retail sector crippled by a law forcing them to use unfavorable official exchange rates, the Zimbabwean government has repealed the restrictive Statutory Instrument 81A of 2024.
Statutory Instrument 34 of 2025, gazetted on April 15, 2025, effectively revokes Statutory Instrument 81A of 2024, granting businesses the freedom to set their own exchange rates for pricing goods and services.
The now-repealed SI 81A, enacted under the Exchange Control Act, had forced formal retailers to price their goods based on the official interbank exchange rate.
This regulation placed them at a significant disadvantage compared to informal traders who often operate outside the tax system and trade in cheaper, sometimes smuggled, goods using parallel market exchange rates.
“IT is hereby notified that the Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion has, in terms of section 11(2), of the Exchange Control Act [Chapter 22:05], made the following regulations:-
“1. These regulations may be cited as the Exchange Control (Amendment of Schedule to the Exchange Control Act) (Repeal) Notice. 2025.
“2. The Exchange Control (Amendment of Schedule to the Exchange Control Act) Notice, 2024, published in Statutory Instrument 81A of 2024, is hereby repealed,” read part of the notice.
The resulting uneven playing field has had a detrimental impact on major retailers such as OK Zimbabwe Limited, N Richards Group, Spar, and Pick n Pay, who have been forced to close numerous stores across the country.
The government seemingly became increasingly concerned about the potential collapse of the formal retail sector due to these competitive pressures.
While the government’s decision has been welcomed by formal businesses and economic analysts, some suggest the action is overdue.
Former Cabinet Minister Walter Mzembi supported the initiative. He, however, cautioned against the practice of governing through Statutory Instruments without thorough impact assessments.
“The Market is King, the Market is the People and their opinion is always superior, the Repeal of SI 81A of 2024 which was introduced at the time to shore up the ZiG is welcome , too little too late though for many Retail Businesses that have either sunk or are very sick,” Mzembi stated.
“But this also betrays the tragedy of governing through SIs often not subjected to thorough think tanking and impact analyses, and this has been cautioned against many times often attracting ridicule from street defenders who know very little about how an Economy works.”
